In Pavlodar, a Community Festival of Jewish Book was held. In the Festival framework, there were lots of interesting meetings and events. Community Festival of the Jewish Book is a big holiday. Nowadays, Jewish literature is presented not by manuscripts written on copying paper but by numerous publications in different libraries. Just in our Community Library there are over two thousand books. Pavlodar readers were presented with a nice gift before the OFEK festival (over fifteen publications) by the Republican Jewish Library and Danish Humanitarian Fund.

We thank all who participated in our OFEK: Joint Distribution Committee, Director of Republic Jewish Library Galina Korobkina, Director of Hesed Rahel Tatyana Slivinskaya, Director of Arts Museum Galian Shestopalova, Coordination of the Exhibition "Journey across Israel. Harmony of Contrasts" Olga Pashko, Naum Shafer, Hana Lobchenko, Yuriy Reznikov, orchestra under supervision of Anatoliy Skorohodov, singing group Anavim, dancing group Mazal, women’s choir Teibelah, children’s vocal studio and its supervisor Svetlana Minenko, singing group Nigun.

Two exhibitions devoted to OFEK were held in November-December 2009. In total, 57 pictures of six photo artists from Israel and Kazakhstan were presented at the moving exhibition "Journey across Israel. Harmony of Contrasts". We could see fascinating coast of the Mediterranean Sea, streets of old Jerusalem, flora and fauna, people in their everyday life at the pictures made by Mikhael Levit, Boris Kulmagambetov, Yuriy Bekker, Ilya Fishman, Oleg Belyalov, and Boris Brulya. But everybody was struck by this picture - a shell exploding amid peaceful everyday life. Members of our community, who have already visited the sacred land, said that they had seen absolutely different Israel. There was also a demonstration of the movie "Light is all around", which made a great impression on everyone.

The festival concluded with a big concert in the Pavlodar House of Friendship. All Jewish performance groups participated in it including Anavim, Teibelah, Taouah, Nigun, Mazal. A big discovery for the audience was the debut of the orchestra coordinated by Anatoliy Skorokhodov. The orchestra played Jewish and Kazakh melodies.

Just for a few years of its existence, the annual Book Festival had become an important event for the Pavlodar Jewish community. OFEK strengthens self identification of Jews, unites the interest to culture with the desire to convey the cultural heritage of our People to as many people as possible.